Political Quotes

“for the past 20 years, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, known, as ERISA, has protected the financial security of America's retirees, and during that time the Department of Labor has served as a guardian of ERISA's private pension investment standards, and that is known as the prudent man rule. Now, however, the Department has, in my view, threatened to abdicate its role as the Nation's pension watchdog by promoting and, indeed, hyping a peculiar and particular class of investments called economically targeted investments, or ETI's. ETI's are investments in an array of socially beneficial projects, such as low-income housing construction, for instance, rather than those selected exclusively to provide a financially sound return for pensioners, as required under the prudent man rule. In June 1994, as has been indicated, the Department issued what was called an interpretive bulletin which just plain promotes pension plan investment in these ETI's. Under this new policy, and it is that in my view, advanced by this bulletin, private pension plans may seek out an investment specifically for the benefits it creates for persons other than the plan's participants and beneficiaries.”